Lovely Cloudscapes

I went for a long walk this afternoon and was entranced by the cloudscapes surrounding me. Just look and enjoy. Yet again, the temperature today was way above the late April average - about 21 C. and the breeze was blowing gently.  For those who know Armidale, all the pictures - shown here in chronological order - were taken while walking along Apple Tree Hill Drive just out of the city's built-up area. The area is covered in hobby farms.

The vegetation along much of this rural route is native - mainly eucalyptus. And, unlike the deciduous trees I have reported wearing their Autumn colours, they remain green all year round

Now you know why I like walking in and around our pleasant city.

AS

Autumn's arrived

Autumn has finally arrived in Armidale judging by our many deciduous trees adopting their end of season colours. I took a long walk around town yesterday taking pictures of them, some of which are attached below. Deciduous trees flourish here because of our cool climate at an altitude of c. 1000 m above sea level. However, cool in our area is somewhat different to much of Europe or North America. During yesterday's walk, the mid-afternoon temperature was about 21 C! I recall that when I was living in the UK we thought that 14 C was an Autumn heatwave. And, for the record, today's forecast is for a maximum of 22 C!

The pictures below, chosen from a rather larger number I took, are in the order they were taken.

The last image, below right, shows what's left of our golden ash's leaves. The one difficult part of Autumn is collecting the fallen leaves, some of which are hidden in the crevices of one of our cars. It has now become a daily chore and our green waste bin is almost full of yellow leaves.
















Even a period of daily COVID-19  lock-down we can still find things to do and even enjoy - especially my long daily walks which often cover 5 or 6 km. Walks around our neighbourhood and city are permitted where they can be classed as exercise. Stay safe.

AS

Easter Walks 2020 or Down the Creek without a paddle

On Good Friday nearly everyone was delighted by a massive downpour which once again will help maintain an almost perfect green landscape. Local farmers haven't seen so much livestock feed in a long time, but strangely on my walk today past stacks of feed I didn't see any sheep or cattle. In fact, I did two long walks partly because I need a lot of exercise after being directed to stay at home and I wanted to reach my fitbit target of 75,000 steps for the week. The first one took me to the northern outskirts of Armidale and past what was Duval High School which Emily and Rebecca attended before heading off to university. Of course, it is now a secondary college after being merged with the Armidale High School and both institutions relocated temporarily to the Duval site.

After passing the Secondary College, I walked north along Scholes St. towards Link Road. En route, I saw masses of long grass and lovely views across to the University of New England (UNE) and Mount Duval, as shown below. The first picture looks across to UNE which sits adjacent to a woody hill-top.

And, in the foreground, there is a hell of a lot of feed awaiting being eaten. However, as farmers re-stock after the long drought, the demand for livestock is high and, logically, so too are the prices bid at auction.

The second picture on the right looks slight to the north-west of the previous picture and towards a barn on the property I was passing.

Once again, admire the feed awaiting to be eaten.

Once I reached Link Road I had to admire the view across to Mount Duval (below) whose elevation is 1393 metres (4570 feet) above sea level. Again, the feed is plentiful.

But look at the scudding clouds bowled along by a high wind.

The clouds, wind and heavy rain reminded me of English weather I experienced growing up in Britain. Perhaps this is one reason why our region is known as New England. Remember, however, that Armidale is derived from Scotland. The first exploration party to reach Dumaresq Creek was led by Commissioner McDonald. And the clan seat of the McDonalds was Armadale on the Isle of Skye. 

Looking slightly to the left of the previous picture - in a north-westerly direction lies this little (distant) farmhouse that I sometime pass on my walks or bike--rides.

That walk took me nearly an hour and covered about 5 km (or roughly 3 miles).

After lunch today, and somewhat tired of looking out of windows (the glass type and not software!) I decided to take another stroll of similar length and timing. This time I head down to Dumaresq creek which runs through the centre of town.

While typing this post, I suddenly realised that I didn't know how the creek got its French-sounding name. It seems to have been named after John Saumarez Dumaresq (1873-1922) who became a rear admiral in the Navy. Despite being born in Sydney, his father was a pastoralist  who ran Furracabad Station near Glen Innes. It seems, however, that John took up a farming property near Armidale - and hence the name of the Creek. By the way, I don't seem to have found a French connection - but I stand to be corrected.

 As I walked along the creek today, my attention was drawn to the large volume of fast-flowing water in it.

OK, I know many of my readers will be familiar with much larger rivers than this in both the UK and Australia .

But don't belittle our creek. I once stood on the banks of the River Jordan in the Palestinian Territories. That mighty river had much less water than I saw today in Dumaresq Creek.



By the way, as I stood on the banks of the Jordan, I and the party I was with, were observed by Jordanian troops sitting on top of a tower in the opposite bank. Fortunately, the looked at us through binoculars rather the the sights of a gun.










The banks of our creek are publicly accessed and include a long bike path like the one shown on the right, plenty of grass on which dogs roam freely, and lots of trees, especially lining the banks of the creek.

Some of the parkland is also given over to play-grounds for children and the Armidale Regional Council will start constructing a u-beaut play-ground like those we've seen in the USA and which are much more challenging for the kids.



These last two pictures show how picturesque the creek-lands can be ... a great asset for the town. Moreover, our town plans preserve a wide green corridor and prevent its urbanisation. The corridor is free for recreation.

I hope these pictures help illustrate Armidale's high visual amenity.

Comments welcome.

AS